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Donald Trump and the Republican women who spurned him face challenges

President-Elect Donald Trump was criticized by Republicans and Democrats for misogynistic remarks during the campaign. Now, he'll have to work with some of the female congressional Republicans who criticized him.

WASHINGTON – Shortly after the release last month of a 2005 Access Hollywood video of Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, Virginia GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock told voters she couldn’t support her party’s nominee and urged him to drop out of the race.

Her public rebuke of Trump might have helped her win re-election Tuesday to her moderate suburban Washington district. But now she’ll have to navigate her relationship with President-elect Trump following a campaign that some analysts say was a step back for the feminist movement in politics.

Not only did Democrat Hillary Clinton unexpectedly fall short of the presidency, the number of women in Congress next year will remain static at 104 — 21 in the Senate, 83 in the House — despite projections of small gains, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

The center is part of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Trump now will have to work with a Congress that includes many women from his own party who repudiated his rhetoric and disowned him in some cases.

GOP senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine denounced his remarks during the campaign and refused to endorse him. Among female Republicans in the House who couldn’t get behind Trump, Comstock was joined by Martha McSally of Arizona, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Mia Love of Utah.

There were other Republican lawmakers who slammed him for his rhetoric, including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Reps. Susan Brooks of Indiana, Diane Black of Tennessee and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, but still found a way to keep endorsing him.

Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., is one of several Republican women in Congress who refused to support president-elect Donald Trump because of comments he made about women.(Photo: Jeff Taylor, The Winchester Star via AP)

But the real estate mogul can mend relationships with Republican lawmakers — male and female — offended by his conduct provided he doesn’t reprise anything like the demeaning comments he made on the Hollywood Access video leaked in October, said Jennifer Lawless a government professor who runs the Women and Politics Institute at American University in Washington, D.C.

“If he says nothing like that again, and if he actually changes his tone and acts like he respects women the way that he claims that he does, I think they have no choice but to try and work with him,” she said.

Calling them “locker room talk,” Trump apologized for the remarks where he graphically describes attempts to sleep with a married woman, brags he can get away with any behavior because he's a "star" and claims he immediately starts kissing "beautiful" women when he meets them.

There were other moments opponents pounced on Trump as sexist during the campaign: when he made fun of rival Carly Fiorina’s face, criticized Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly for being so angry she had “blood coming out of her … wherever,” and heckling Clinton as “such a nasty woman” while she was responding during a recent debate.

Twelve women came forward following the airing of the Access Hollywood tape. Trump has denied the stories and is threatening legal action against some of the news outlets reporting on the story.

Getting some of his policies, particularly as it relates to abortion, might be trickier to overcome since Senate Democrats in no mood to accept his apologies can still filibuster legislation, she said. But having Republicans in control of Congress could embolden Trump to push for a staunch conservative agenda that likely would rile pro-feminist advocates.

Chief among them would be the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice to fill the seat of Antonin Scalia who died in February.

“I am pro-life, and I will be appointing pro-life judges,” Trump said in the Oct. 19 presidential debate in Las Vegas.

There may be other areas where GOP lawmakers, including many of the women who scolded him for his misogynistic language, would be willing to support Trump: defunding Planned Parenthood, expanding school choice and scrapping the Affordable Care Act.

“The pro-life movement is in the strongest position that it has been in in 40 years, since Roe v. Wade,” she told reporters Wednesday. “This election has delivered a very powerful punch, and along with that has delivered a very strong mandate.”

Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY's List, which backs pro-choice candidates, sounded devastated — and defiant — in an email to supporters Wednesday.

“I'm as shocked and disappointed by the results of this election as you are.,” she said. “After the dust settles, we'll find the resolve to come back and fight harder than ever against Donald Trump and the things he stands for.”

Debbie Walsh, who directs the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, said the jury is still out on whether Trump can rebuild bridges with women of both parties who make up roughly one of every five lawmakers in Congress.

“We’re going to have to see how this goes because he clearly alienated women in the course of this race (including) some of the very women he’s going to need to work with on the Hill,” she said. “He’s going to need to prove himself.”

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Donald Trump, right, waits with his brother Robert for the start of a Casino Control Commission meeting in Atlantic City on March 29, 1990. Trump was seeking final approval for the Taj Mahal Casino Resort, one of the world's largest casino complexes. AP

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